[nagdu] Local fair-housing complaints from disabled people are on the rise

[Ginger Kutsch]

Local fair-housing complaints from disabled people are on the
rise
Posted by Robert L. Smith / Plain Dealer Reporter 
May 15, 2009 
 
In a region where charges of discrimination are historically
associated with race, another group of home seekers is expanding
the concept of civil rights. People with disabilities helped to
push the number of fair-housing complaints in Northeast Ohio to
an all-time high in 2008. 
Often, they charge that a landlord denied them a lease because
they need a wheelchair, or a service dog, or another
accommodation essential to living independently. 
 
Last year, 254 fair-housing complaints were filed in the
six-county region, more than twice the total of 2007 and the most
recorded in 19 years. People with physical, mental and emotional
disabilities were behind much of the increase. 
 
Complaints of disability-related discrimination have doubled over
the past five years. They now account for one-third of all
fair-housing complaints, equal to the share of complaints
alleging racial discrimination, according to an analysis by the
Housing Research & Advocacy Center of Cleveland. 
 
Advocates for the disabled say a new kind of housing
discrimination is being recognized and confronted. They argue the
region has been slow to catch up with the law and with the
reality of an aging society. 
 
"People think, 'If I treat everybody the same, it's OK, I'm not
discriminating,' " said Diane Citrino, a former regional director
of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. "You have to do something
different with the blind person." 
 
Like bend the no-pet policy and allow a guide dog. 
 
A fair-housing complaint triggers an inquiry by the Ohio Civil
Rights Commission. Most complaints are mediated, but they can
lead to a hearing or a trial that results in court-ordered
corrections, fines, damage awards and attorney fees. 
 
The housing center examined complaints filed with the commission
and with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
from the six counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake,
Lorain and Medina. Its fourth annual survey reveals an
accelerating trend. 
 
>From 2004 to 2008, an average of 161 fair-housing complaints were
filed each year, up drastically from the previous five-year
average of 93 complaints annually. Disability-related complaints
doubled during the five-year span and more than tripled from 2007
to 2008. 
 
The surge creates some mystery. Advocates working to educate the
disabled about their housing rights say it's possible landlords
are facing savvier tenants. 
 
"It's also possible there's more discrimination," said Jeffrey
Dill man, the housing center's executive director. "If people are
moving more often, there's a possibility more people are facing
some prejudice." 
 
Experts say that may explain more complaints of racial
discrimination, which jumped from 41 in 2007 to 84 in 2008. The
foreclosure crisis expelled many people from their homes,
creating new renters. With houses not selling, many homeowners
became landlords. 
 
"White owners who are uncomfortable with black tenants will try
to avoid it," said Tom Bier, a housing specialist at Cleveland
State University. 
 
The protests from people with a disability appear to be part of a
larger trend. The 1968 federal Fair Housing Act, which made it
illegal to discriminate during a sale or a lease because of
someone's race, religion or gender, was amended in 1988 to extend
protection to parents with children and people with disabilities.

 
Advocates say the law compels a landlord to make reasonable
accommodations. That could mean a trash can for an elderly woman
who cannot raise the Dumpster lid. Or allowing a tenant to build
a wheelchair ramp at his own expense. 
 
Such accommodations are becoming increasingly necessary, experts
note. The region is growing older. Veterans are returning from
two theaters of war. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 13
percent of people in the region have a disability. 
 
"For a person with a seeing-eye dog, it's a totally different
world," said Patricia Kidd, the executive director of the Fair
Housing Resource Center in Painesville. 
 
Kidd joined the disability crusade four years ago, when she met a
blind man with a newly trained guide dog. He was eager to live
independently, but landlords kept telling him, "No pets." 
 
Over the last four years, she has led undercover testing at more
than 100 apartment houses in Lake County. In about one-third of
the cases, she said, disabled people were discriminated against. 
 
Much of the discrimination stems from ignorance of the law, she
said. But some of it is uncaring and mean-spirited. She has seen
people in wheelchairs shown the stairs and a deaf person hung up
on as she sought to converse via a TTY machine. 
 
There's room, Kidd said, for some assertive enlightenment. 
 
"People have service animals so they can maintain their dignity,"
she said. "You can seminar and try to educate a community best
you can, but sometimes it just comes down to enforcement." 
 
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/05/local_fairhousing_complai
nts_f.html
 


Ginger Bennett Kutsch
Morristown, NJ